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Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

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25 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Murder mysteries rarely run as deep as this long, dark night of the soul from Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director of ‘Uzak’ and ‘Three Monkeys’. Ceylan is a master of brooding stories defined by their wry questioning of human nature and often focused on men in crisis. He has an unflinching eye for the worst in all of us and for the black comedy and absurd banalities of everyday life.

For his sixth film, Ceylan has chosen his bleakest canvas yet: a murder investigation that begins in the dark wilds of the great Anatolian outdoors and ends in the cold light of an autopsy room. In tone, it’s Ceylan’s most epic and talky film yet. But don’t be fooled – it’s also his most mysterious and meditative.We meet a group of a dozen policemen, soldiers and others as they drive about on the steppes one night in search of a body with the two men suspected of burying it. It’s an ensemble piece, and for much of its 158-minute running time, the film itself feels like a painful, fruitless inquiry as it seeks themes, subjects and characters to latch on to. It’s a police procedural, yes, but you imagine that’s just an excuse to bring together a varied group of men in the face of a terrible event. It’s very far indeed from a traditional whodunnit.

However, the murder allows both Ceylan and us time to stop and consider what life means in the face of it being snatched away. He throws in some haunting, jolting moments to remind us that the answer is beyond our grasp: a flash of lightning illuminates a scary stone carving of a face and an apple mysteriously rolls down a stream with a little too much autonomy. Here, Ceylan’s visual style is less heightened, more down-to-earth than the more stylised ‘Three Monkeys’, but still some of the night-time scenes look like careful paintings, such is the precision of their lighting and composition.

This night feels like it might last forever. A convoy of cars pulls up at one spot, and another, and another… We hear snippets of chat about yoghurt or illnesses. Our focus shifts from a prosecutor to a doctor to the accused, or sometimes Ceylan pulls back and shows us the whole gathering, lit by the moon or headlights. The entourage takes tea at a village where a beautiful young woman serving them awakens new feelings in one of the prisoners and the story begins to take on a more intimate, spiritual dimension as it focuses increasingly on the character of the doctor. He’s a metropolitan outsider in a small town and a man struggling with a fiercely logical approach to life. Just as the woman stirs feelings in the prisoner, so this investigation unsettles the doctor – just as, we imagine, Ceylan hopes to unsettle us as he takes us with him on this compelling, masterly journey.

Author: Dave Calhoun

Time Out London Issue 2169: Mar 16-22, 2012

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User reviews of this film

Jon Talbot said...

Posted on May 23 2012 13:46 I am not surprised this film divides opinion as it is clearly not everyone's cup of tea. I really enjoyed it ( l think it makes sense the begin at that point rather than say its good or bad) and l can say why- although for me a little long.
There is a lot to enjoy in the gradual unfurling of events and character but it is an extremely morbid film. In large part it is a meditation on attitudes towards life and death including its (as with everything else in life) inevitable bureaucratisation. There is plenty of dark humour shot through the proceedings but the real darkness is in the back stories of the main protagonists lives. As others have mentioned the cinematography is stunning, the characters engaging and believable, the camera shots varied and interesting, There are many memorable scenes not least of which when the death fixated (and lonely) doctor looks longingly at the departing widow of the murderd man, a small part of her dead husbands blood unnoticed to him, on his cheek. A man who sees death everywhere, drawn to life yet unable to connect. Great stuff.

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Murali Dharan said...

Posted on May 15 2012 18:02 One of the favourite investigation movies I have ever seen. Superb cinematography and Brilliant casting.

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polychenko said...

Posted on May 12 2012 12:05 Stunning: like tarkovsky's films, fascinating, beautiful, moving, intelligent, simple

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Ian said...

Posted on Apr 19 2012 21:37 Fantastic, like a Russian play or novel (signalled by the doctor) with all the depth and subtlety you would find therein.

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James said...

Posted on Apr 13 2012 14:22 Didn't like it. Trying to be a Tarkovsky without the soul or intellect.

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Daisy said...

Posted on Apr 10 2012 11:11 Glad I don't have to go to the cinema with YOU Ed! Every wonderful film will not appeal to everyone and you are obviously one of those people who needs to be told what is going on, minute by minute. This film is about the fact that there are NO answers, no black and white, no stark 'good' and 'bad'. If you have gone through life looking for such certainties , you must be very tired by now!

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Ed said...

Posted on Apr 10 2012 08:46 I agree with Chris. This movie is once of the worse I've ever seen. I can't believe I sat through the whole 2+ coma inducing hours of it. I went based on the glowing reviews and I really, really have to assume you are all on acid or something; because, you couldn't be talking about the same movie I saw. Not only was it totally boring and mind numbing, it had NO plot, NO point, and NO actual ending. Incredible, the worst thing was having wasted 3 or so hours of my life on this piece of crap. Wow!

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Jeremy said...

Posted on Apr 01 2012 00:40 A beautiful film with fascinating characters but the failure of the plot to develop or to clarify means that sadly the film will only be enjoyed by the pretentious.

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Mavis Klein said...

Posted on Mar 31 2012 20:09 Brilliant. Impossible to classify, except to say it's about the
wonderfully complex ordinariness of life

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Mavis Klein said...

Posted on Mar 31 2012 20:08 Brilliant. Impossible to describe except to say it's about the wonderful ordinariness of life.

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Gurken said...

Posted on Mar 31 2012 00:25 to make it 'great' and 'magnificent' and 'best film this year' and God knows what else people come up with, the film wld need a tighter story line. I do understand the allegories, symbolism, the context of Anatolia etc..but the film lacks something that keeps you gripped to be called a 'masterpiece'....really, what will you call 'The White Ribbon", "The lives of others", "The secret in your eyes', "Burnt by the sun', etc...if this is a 'bloody masterpiece' ? How about a bit of 'balancedness'...even when it comes to voicing online personal opinions. It's ok to call something ok if it is ok.

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Layla said...

Posted on Mar 26 2012 15:03 Well Sutton, you don't have to agree with me but I would say that if you, out there, want a fast moving film, don't want to think, don't want to wonder at what it is about men and families, not interested in 'unpacking' ambiguity or marvelling at sheer beauty & mystery, all the time looking for w easy answers, DON'T go to this film!

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Sutton said...

Posted on Mar 26 2012 14:17 Far from a masterpiece. The film is well shot with nice photography, but the film is slow and dull. I like Art house films as much as the next person, but this was hard work. Some of the dialogue in the car was amusing, but it does not make up for little happening.

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Mirkle said...

Posted on Mar 25 2012 21:05 I have no idea if this film is any good or not - if you fancy a little doze you'll fit it in quite nicely between the endless steppe and the strangely riveting autopsy ......

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Alan Pavelin said...

Posted on Mar 21 2012 15:30 Boring, Chris? Why on earth did you go and see it, then? You sound like the kind of person who thought Malick's "The Tree of Life" boring.

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